


If He Has Blocks, I'm Shooting Him

by Oldine



Series: Birches Grow [3]
Category: Torchwood
Genre: F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-19
Updated: 2017-02-18
Packaged: 2018-09-25 10:41:25
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 16
Words: 16,650
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9816257
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Oldine/pseuds/Oldine





	1. Chapter 1

**Psychic Refuge; Rural Kenya**

**Friday, September 20, 2019**

Living at the refuge was so different than the Fellowship of Inner Peace. Although individuals had different roles, and more authority than others, everyone was considered equal. Except Aman Oliveira, the Prophet, but he never came out and said it. It was simply known he was in charge. The refuge openly had a caste system. It applied mostly to psychics. The type of ability, and how powerful it was, determined the psychic’s place in the social hierarchy. Other criteria including time at the Refuge and duties affected one’s standings.

Which made her standings very confusing. Keara Montfert was one of the newest psychics. Although her accomplishments were minimal, and she had little to no control, the founders and other powerful members viewed her among the strongest at the Refuge. No one would tell her why.

“Miriam,” Keara said quietly. “I need to ask you something.”

“Walk.”

Keara hurried to keep up. “I had a vision. I saw an older version of myself. Except it wasn’t me.” She hesitated. “I don’t know much about being a psychic. But I know I can’t see myself in my visions. Not the random ones. Not while remote-viewing.”

“What are you asking?”

“How can there be two me?”

“I don’t know.” Miriam’s tone was changing. Nothing usually surprised her. “What did you see?”

“The Other me is manipulating multiple sides of the conflict. Torchwood, the cult and that horrible company.”

“To what end?”

“She’s trying to create a specific result.” The idea of manipulating people like pieces on a chess board sickened Keara.

“Are we involved?” Miriam asked.

“I don’t know.”

“There are other psychics here. I will find someone who can help figure it out.”

“Thank you.”

The only upside to the situation was knowledge. If the other woman really was another version of herself, she had a similar ability. Keara would be able to learn control. It also explained why various members of the Refuge viewed her as powerful. Manipulating people, places and time was impressive.

Waiting gave her an excuse to walk. The land was beautiful and different from Nigeria. Leaving the Fellowship without an armed guide was a bad idea. The Refuge had a variety of members that secured the area in a variety of ways. She could safely walk without an escort.

Drystan, Miriam’s adopted son, approached a couple hours later. The child always made her nervous. She’d unfortunately seen the werewolf boy video. Moss-Probert turned a child with a genetic disorder into an animal, in a lot of ways. Those responsible were monsters.

Unable to speak, the boy handed her a hand written note. “Meditate.”

That wasn’t helpful. “Thank you.”

He nodded and took off.

Adopting him said a lot about Miriam. While Keara looked at Drystan and remembered the video, Miriam had seen first-hand what he was capable of and still wanted him. Keara wasn’t that brave. Between the whispers, and Miriam’s social standings, she suspected part of it had to do with Miriam’s own capabilities. She was a soldier. A psychic capable of using her ability in combat and not losing her sanity.

Miriam wouldn’t say much about how she met Thomas or Drystan. Apparently, it happened at a Moss-Probert research facility in Wales. The lab Drystan came from was publicized with the video. It had been destroyed by the unwilling residents. A list of bizarre and violent events followed exposing Moss-Probert. Which she suspected Miriam was responsible for. Which fit her being labeled a soldier.

Keara stopped under a large tree with a herd of elephants in the distance. If she wasn’t positive the area was safe, she wouldn’t risk an outdoor trance. Remote-viewing was the closest she knew to meditation. The results were almost immediate and unnerving. The woman she’d previously seen who looked so much like her was sitting at a chess board. The pieces were surreal, flickering like flames on a candle. The woman looked up and met her eyes. They were familiar but alien. She had no doubt the woman was another version of her.

“What are you doing?” Keara asked.

The Other didn’t seem to understand at first. “Winning.”

“Winning what?”

“The war.”

“Tell me about it.”

That confused her. The Other made Keara think of a documentary she’d once seen in school about a POW who’d survived horrible things and spent too much time alone.

“Aliens attack Earth through the Rift and time. They send dangerous technology, ships and evil. They corrupt worthless men to turn against their own.”

“How long have you been fighting?”

The Other hesitated. “I don’t know.”

“There are people who will help.”

“Who?”

“Torchwood.” They had helped her.

“They fail.”

Keara wondered if the Other had any concept of past/present/future. “They have or they will?”

“Yes.”

“Has John Hart failed?”

“He has. He will.”

“Why?” From what she knew of him, he could handle most situations.

“Hart’s weak.”

Perhaps her double didn’t mean physically. “Can he win with help?”

“If he needs help, he’s weak.”

Keara also wondered if the Other had any idea what she was doing anymore. “What does winning mean?”

The Other’s confusion grew.

“What will end the war?”

“The war does not end.”

“Then how can you win?”

The answer took much longer than previously. “I don’t know.”

“Let me help you.”

“No.” The Other motioned at the board. “This is my burden.”

“Why?”

“Anwen died.” That obviously affected the Other. “I couldn’t protect her.”

“When?”

“Repeatedly.”

Keara tried to wrap her mind around the possibility the Other was in some type of time loop. Rational and irrational blurred long before she had a conversation with herself in a trance.


	2. Chapter 2

**Torchwood Three; Cardiff Wales**

John Hart made a decision. When he returned to the building, he found Gwen Cooper unconscious on the floor near a dead man. He had no idea what happened or when she’d wake up. Medican scans showed Gwen was simply unconscious, and had no injuries. Anwen on the other hand had life-threatening injuries. Even with Nanogenes, he wasn’t confident she’d fully recover.

He parked his car in the garage near the Torchwood entrance. Which relieved some of the stress. During the short drive from the building to Butetown pier, he kept picturing explaining the situation to a constable pulling him over. “She’s my friend’s kid. She normally sleeps comatosed in the backseat wrapped in a blanket surrounded by ice packs.”

“You are never boring, darling.” John carefully carried her from the car into Torchwood.

The door open, recognizing one of them. After the Torchwood London mainframe was established, Anwen would have authorized Jack as head of Torchwood. Jack would have removed his command access as soon as possible. He didn’t know if that barred him from the hub.

“Computer, recognize command authority, John Hart.” He hoped that still worked.

“Authority accepted.”

“Computer, authorize verbal updates.”

“Stop,” Ianto ordered.

John suspected he was armed. The few times he’d seen him lately, he’d carried a shoulder holster. “Eye candy, I don’t have time for this. You know what happens. The ice isn’t enough this time. She needs nanogenes.”

“Security breach in progress,” the computer announced.

John looked up at Ianto. He did have a gun. “Can you handle that?”

Ianto hesitated briefly before hurrying over. John handed Anwen to him carefully.

John opened his wrist-strap and remotely accessed the hub. “Secure doors, disable remote access.”

 

Medical and daycare, two things Ianto Jones never saw himself doing until he returned. Tucking in Anwen, running a medical scan, and activating the nanogenes didn’t require thought. He even had an idea what the results on the screen meant.

John stepped into the infirmary. “How is she?”

“Better than the last time.”

“Gwen pissed me off. I left.” John sighed. “Do you know what Anwen did?”

“I don’t know. There was a problem with the ship in the Rift. Anwen couldn’t destroy it.”

“What did that have to do with Keara?”

“She called and asked for you.”

“Do you know what Keara said?”

Ianto hesitated. “A girl would try to prevent the ship from leaving the Rift but it was ready for her. It would get through and disrupt the device in Liverpool.”

“Jack changed something. If the clockwork god escaped, the planet would’ve been destroyed.”

“The clockwork thing has gears?” Anwen who propped herself up on an elbow.

“Yeah,” John said.

“It destroyed the warship. I used the energy it created to…” She tried to find the right words. “It ate itself.”

“Darling, you were a Time Lord in a past life.”

“Is that like a Time Agent?”

John laughed. “No.”

Anwen looked disappointed.

“Get some rest. There is a security problem I don’t know how to resolve.”

“Where’s Uncle Jack?”

“I don’t know.”

 

**Fellowship of Inner Peace**

“Explain this to me. Jack was in Liverpool.”

“John Hart,” Idrissa said quietly. “He walked in. A few minutes later, Torchwood was secured.”

Aman Oliveira pinched the bridge of his nose. “Hart has command authority of Torchwood?”

“And Harkness doesn’t. We would have breached when they uploaded the London files, except Donnell Woodside insisted on command authorization.”

“How do we get in?”

“I don’t know. Hart is inside with Anwen and Ianto Jones. No leverage options. The only office that could take control by remote was destroyed.”

Oliveira took a moment to think. “With Woodside’s files, could we create a fake Torchwood Institute?”

“In theory. But the only two with authorized access to London are Hart and Anwen.”

“Is Anwen the only future Torchwood agent with current access?”

“Miriam Morgans.”

“No.” Miriam would be impossible to control or manipulate.

“Luc Sarkisian is already connected to Torchwood in Nova Scotia. He’s seventeen.” Idrissa brought up Sarkisian’s current and future files and presented them side-by-side.

Oliveira wondered, “What would that get us?”

“Access to the Arctic Research Facility.”

Oliveira had a better idea.

 

**Torchwood Three**

Jack Harkness stood in the garage reviewing scan results. “This situation is wrong.”

“Yeah. I’m going to kill him,” Gwen said.

“Too many glitches, coincidences and odd-defying situations.”

“I don’t follow.”

“John said Anwen wanted to prevent something that happened in the future. A few artifacts and John wouldn’t guaranteed anything.” Jack closed his wrist-strap. “It’s a chess game.”

“To accomplish what?”

“I don’t know. But the hub power is still on. The back door still works.”

 

“Ianto,” Anwen Williams said. “Jack’s here. He’s coming in through the ceiling.”

“Good.”

“Thanks for helping me.” She said. “I know babysitting isn’t fun. Jack and Mom go knock heads and leave you with the kids.”

“I don’t mind.”

“I’ve seen the way Uncle Jack looks at Mom. You do mind. But you don’t have to worry.” Anwen smiled. “Dad’s housebroken. Uncle Jack’s hopeless.”

Ianto laughed.

 

“What the hell are you doing?” Jack Harkness demanded.

“Your job.” John was sitting at a computer console. “Anwen is alive, conscious and with Ianto in the infirmary.”

Gwen glared until the lift reached the bottom. Then she took off for the infirmary.

“The hub is secure. The attack was local. Probably Oliveira.”

“Explain this to me.”

“Which part?”

“Start with the computer.”

“I’m finishing the prep for the mainframe in storage. The transfer needs to go through a secured system. If I wanted to hack Torchwood Three, I wouldn’t do it directly, I would access an easier target and insert a digital key. The Falklands is soft; Woodside is a librarian.” John said. “Once it’s active, it should allow Anwen to give you command authority to Torchwood Three and remove me.”

Jack stared at him. “Anwen asked for help.”

“While she was in the hub. She didn’t tell you?”

“No. Ianto had the same idea for creating a fake London.”


	3. Chapter 3

**Torchwood Canada; Nova Scotia**

**Saturday, September 21, 2019**

Luc Sarkisian reminded himself again he needed to be diplomatic. Trying to build a computer while Bryer Deselle tried his patience, made it more difficult than usual. “The instruction manual is in three languages,” Luc said over Skype. “You speak two of them.”

The tired, graying man eyed him across video chat. “Your manual requires understanding advanced physics.”

“Yes. Quantum entanglement requires understanding advanced physics.”

“We don’t have a physicist here.” Deselle was not amused.

Luc connected a hard drive with a Sata cable. “I offered.”

“We don’t have facilities for kids.”

“I’m not a kid. I wasn’t a kid at fourteen when I held this facility for eighteen hours. Or last year when those mercenaries tried it.”

“The device is unstable.” Deselle projected frustration through the screen. “We don’t have time for this.”

“Find a containment box the device will fit in and seal it up.” Luc was losing his patience.

“We need it.”

“No, you don’t. We’re not ready for quantum entanglement. No matter what you tell me, it wouldn’t be used as clean energy to replace nuclear power plants. You’d want weapons or you’d get the idea to sell it to someone who does.”

The emergency alarm drowned out Deselle’s response. “Breach attempt under way.”

“We can debate unethical research later.” Luc disconnected.

“Activate sentinels.”

A minute passed. “Active.”

Luc moved over to the security console. “Find faces.”

Three men and one women appeared on the screen.

“Run facial rec.”

Luc stood and moved over the small armory he established in a closet near his desk. Placing his hand on a panel unlocked the DNA encoded mechanism and it opened. He grabbed a backpack of equipment and weapons.

 

**Torchwood Three; Cardiff, Wales**

Jack Harkness reviewed paperwork at his desk. While he missed the hub, he didn’t miss the bureacracy nor the stupidity. One official realized Torchwood was fully operational again, after months, and demanded to know who authorized it. He further suggested it needed to be shutdown until an investigation could be completed. Another official asked if he intended to blow up the building again as it took ten years to rebuild itself. The conversation develoved into a debate whether aliens or the American spies were behind the miraculous reconstruction.

The door open and Gwen strode in looking less than happy. “You can’t be serious.”

“About?”

“You let the psychopath back in.”

“The psychopath has access to Torchwood London; he let himself back in.”

The desk phone rang. “Harkness.”

“This is Luc Sarkisian from the Nova Scotia office.” Jack could hear alarms in the background. “I’m under attack.”

“How can I help?”

“That’s what I’m hoping you can tell me. Readings are crazy. Alien tech, futuristic weapons. They’ve taken out two sentinels.” The young man sounded very stressed. “I have three hours at most.”

Jack looked at Gwen. “Get John up here.”

Gwen nodded.

“Do you know whose attacking you?”

“No. Three of the four of them are showing indications of biomechanical augmentation. Impressive tech.” Luc hesitated. “No one should have this technology.”

Jack heard John running up the stairs.

“Hold on.” He set his hand over the receiver. “Any reason Oliveira would attack Nova Scotia?”

“Uh. I need a list of names.”

“Luc Sarkisian.”

John had to think. “He’s a science genius. If he’s the target, his profile must be in the system. Can I talk to him?”

Jack held the receiver.

 

John Hart moved over and accepted. “Can you check your profile through Torchwood London?”

“It exists?”

“Yes.” Typing came across the line. “I’m listed as the head scientist of Torchwood Global. We have a space fleet?”

“No. Do you know anything about the attackers?”

Luc repeated what he knew.

“You need to destabilize them at the molecular level.”

“Just that.”

“You’re the genius, Sarkisian, figure it out.” John handed the receiver back to Jack. “We have the weapons in the secondary armory. I know how to deal with them.”

“Do you have another portal device?”

“Several.”

“Minimal damage. No unnecessary dead.”

John turned toward the door. “Tell the kid he’s being relocated. Oliveira won’t stop.”

 

“Authorization denied.” John stared at the armory. How he had access to the building, but not his own weapons, he didn’t know.

Anwen walked in, moving slowly. “You’re leaving.”

“Yeah. Can you open this?”

Anwen set her hand against the panel, and it opened.

“Thanks.”

“Where are you going?”

“Canada. Oliveira, the guy who tried to hack Torchwood yesterday, is attacking the Nova Scotia office.” John started removing equipment. “The kid holding the fort is a genius not a soldier. He doesn’t have a chance against biomechs.”

“It’s dangerous?”

“Yeah.” A thought occurred to him. John stopped packing his gear and removed the necklace and ring. “You can hold this for me.”

“You wear a girl’s ring?” Anwen eyed it before he fastened it around her neck.

“It belonged to the other version of you.”

Anwen read the inscription. “It says ‘Peace.’”

“For another day.” He couldn’t explain it. She wouldn’t understand. “Go back to the infirmary.” John waited a moment. “Or I’m calling Ianto.”

“Mean. You’re mean.” She slowly headed out of the room.

It was odd not feeling it against his skin. He’d taken it off for Ken. Which added to the guilt. But it had always been close by.

“Get a grip.”

 

**Psychic Refuge; Rural Kenya**

Keara Montfort foresaw the attack twenty-four hours in advance. She reported it through Miriam, expecting the trip to be canceled. Instead it was decided they would be prepared.

Everything she saw in her vision suggested the Prophet was retaliating. Nothing she experienced during the actual attack said differently. But something felt wrong. Aman Oliveira had shown no previous interest in pursuing her. The more she thought about what happened in Wales, she doubted he was behind Colin’s death. Men associated with the Fellowship killed her friend and came after her after his death. The corporation that imprisoned Miriam had been infiltrated by aliens. The Fellowship could have been.

Leadership considered the possibility they had been ear-wigged as one of the Americans described it, and planned accordingly. Nothing unexpected happened.

That alone made Keara wonder. The Prophet had a compound full of psychics. If he was actually behind it, he had to know what they were up against. It was a suicide mission.

Keara couldn’t decide if it was another manipulation from the Other or something else entirely. She wished she could contact John. He knew her somehow. It was possible he knew more about her ability than she did as he asked very specific questions. Miriam had had a similar experience.

“This is wrong.” Keara approached Miriam after their attackers had been killed.

“How?”

“Aman Oliveira didn’t do this.” She shook her head. “He’s not stupid. This was stupid.”

“Who did?”

“I don’t know. Aliens, Moss-Probert, someone I haven’t thought of.”

“The founders will retaliate. They will burn Oliveira’s entire world to the ground.”

“Exactly. Someone is using the Refuge to take him out.”

“The psychics will be rescued and deprogrammed.”

Tears welled in her eyes. “Aman Oliveira didn’t do this.”


	4. Chapter 4

**Torchwood Canada; Nova Scotia**

Captain John Hart stepped from the portal into a situation worse than expected. The four person team was actually a full squad and they were waiting for him. It wasn’t the first time Oliveira tried to ambush him. But the over-kill was impressive. An anti-portal device prevented him from leaving. He threw stun grenades that burst, producing to many incoming pieces to shoot. He’d calibrated them for biomechs. They had to dodge them.

He took a moment to scan the area and four options. None were good. He chose randomly and went. The intended ambush had explosive charges, and he hit them with a centralized EMP burst. The biomechs anticipated. He hit the biomechs with a pulse weapon modified for their physiology and they hit the ground in dissolving chunks.

John tapped his ear piece. “Oliveira changed tactics. He’s trying to take me alive. Either as a distraction before hitting another location, or to use me to gain access to Torchwood. Have Anwen give you access to my London profile. You need to list me as MIA and presumed captured. It will instantly lock out my London access and will quickly distribute it through the remaining facilities.” He paused. “If he’s after you, or playing mind games, remember he knows you. Twenty years.”

“Understood,” Jack said. “Get yourself back here.”

“Aye, aye, Captain.” John disconnected, and ducked into a doorway and took a moment to bind his injured arm.

The biomechs caught him a few minutes later. The inevitable cliche scene. They forced him to his knees with a gun to his head. A second gen biomech with more muscle than brains brought a laptop with a video conference connection.

“John Hart. The loyal attack dog.”

John waited. He would live as long as Oliveira considered him useful.

“Chas offered a deal,” Oliveira said. “I offer the same. In exchange for assistance.”

John said nothing, knowing the melodrama was part of the approach.

“You have Torchwood command authorization. When we take the office there, you will change command of Torchwood Three.”

“What keeps you from killing me?” If John could buy time, he might be able to save the kid.

“A future need for your skills.”

It was something out of a movie Anwen liked. “What are the options in Southern Asia?”

 

**Torchwood Three; Cardiff, Wales**

Working with Torchwood London, even if the Institute had been reduced to a mainframe in storage, created a strange collage of memories. Most were normal or even happy. He could vividly recall Andrew complaining about a filing system glitch. A glitch the database didn’t have. He reviewed the download and realized they received two copies labeled Torchwood London. The other version had the glitch.

Running a full comparison would take forever. He focused on the immediate situation. The Nova Scotia office, Luc Sarkisian and Woodside. What he discovered sent him to Jack’s office. “I found something in the transfer from the Falklands.” Ianto explained. “Luc Sarkisian isn’t a defenseless scientist. He designed security systems for Torchwood.”

It took Jack a moment. “Oliveira stole inaccurate information.”

“Yeah. Woodside is a generational Torchwood librarian.”

“Someone is manipulating this situation,” Jack concluded.

“Actively.”

 

**Torchwood Canada; Nova Scotia**

Luc Sarkisian listened to the nonsensical rantings of mad man. Whoever Aman Oliveira was, he thought highly of himself. He also believed the man sent from Wales was on his side. Oliveira reminded him of high school. Guys like that thought every girl wanted them even though they couldn’t get a date if they drove a convertible.

The wall groaned under strain. Luc held the modified weapon and waited. When the muscle-headed intruders breached, he tested the device and it worked. They didn’t even have time to scream. With three assholes down, the Torchwood guy ran for the defensive point.

“You figured it out.”

“Yeah.” Luc swore at him in French.

“What?”

“Why does some asshat think you’re handing over Torchwood Three?”

John groaned. “I told Oliveira I would to buy time. Jack should have listed me MIA by now.”

“Which cuts off your command access. Easy enough to check.” Luc said. “Computer, deploy bots.”

A trio of impressively armed robots moved toward the breach. Two repaired the breach while the third cleaned the biohazard that was once three biomechs.

 

**Fellowship of Inner Peace; Cardiff, Wales**

Idrissa marveled at the situation. A seventeen year-old succeeded where trained soldiers twice his age failed.

“Aman.” Sharing the news made him nervous. His lover was already acting irrationally. “Sarkisian killed the men securing Hart and has control of Nova Scotia again.”

“How?” Aman massaged his temples.

“Owusu thinks he modified a stun gun for molecular destabilization.” Idrissa nodded his head.

“Show me the London profile again.”

Idrissa brought it up on the screen.

After reading it quickly, Aman concluded the information had to be inaccurate. Which suggested all of the information was inaccurate. Why would Anwen anticipate his hack and plant information? Preventing him from leaving would have been simpler.

“Change of plans. Notify the Cardiff team I’m leading the siege team myself.”

Idrissa hesitated. “That’s a bad idea.”

“It needs to be done.”

“Aman, you’re obsessed. A planned assault failed. Please, wait and reassess the situation.”

“When I take out Anwen, this will all be over,”

No, Idrissa thought. It won’t be over. There was someone else involved. Someone they couldn’t anticipate or understand. One of the young ones said the Fates were changing the design of their tapestry. It sounded fanciful. After everything, he knew it was a lot more than a chess game between Aman and the future time he came from.


	5. Chapter 5

**Torchwood Three; Cardiff, Wales**

Jack Harkness needed to think. The exercise and quiet helped him focus. The situation with future Torchwood and Oliveira was frustrating. They appeared to have the same goal of saving the planet. But had different approaches. If he understood anything future Torchwood did, and was doing, they didn’t trust him to protect the present. Oliveira felt Torchwood needed an army and that required taking control of Torchwood. His anger was at the future and a woman that no longer existed. If he could only think of a way to end the conflict with Oliveira.

His ear com activated.

“Nova Scotia is secure.” John’s survival meant one less thing to worry about. “Sarkisian is repairing the walls, with robots similar to your Roombas, and is locking down the facility.”

“Vacuum cleaners?” Jack could hear Sarkisian ask in the background.

“As babysitting goes,” John said with amusement, “At least he doesn’t throw blocks.”

There was a thunk in the background. “He throws tools.”

“Sarkisian is less than half your age. He can kick your ass, John. Don’t piss him off.”

John muttered something before disconnecting.

“The kid’s safe then?” Gwen looked tired.

“Yeah.”

“Rhys called. Trefor is sick and he has his hands full. There is some problem at the office. I need to pick him up.”

Jack offered a rare hug. “Bring him here.”

“Thanks.” She accepted.

“You and Rhys need to take a weekend when this is over.” Since the Miracle Day situation, he accessed accounts he’d established decades earlier. For times they needed money they didn’t have to justify spending. “There is a new, upscale bed and breakfast. I could make calls.”

“Yeah.” Gwen tilted her head back and met his gaze. He could see the conflicted emotions on her face. Stress had that affect.

“Go.” The impulse was always to kiss her.

As if suddenly realizing how close they were to making a mistake, she looked away and backed up. “I…”

“I know.” A rare moment where they both wondered if they made the right choices. “Go.”

Jack turned, rubbing the back of his neck, as Gwen walked away. The desire had been as expected as it was strong. A complication they’d struggled with for years.

The difficulty of maintaining distance reminded him of the absurdity of the situation. He shared the hub with his boyfriend, an ex, and the one that got away. A volatile mix when stress was high.

Hoping to cool off and go back to the varied complications of time travel and different perspectives, he wandered. The personal issues lingered.

Seeing Ianto a few minutes later didn’t help. They would have to talk.

“Where did mom go?” Anwen shuffled slowly behind Ianto.

“To get your brother.”

She looked between them as if sensing something. “I’ll be in the conference room.”

Ianto waited until Anwen disappeared down the hall. “Should I be jealous?”

“No.” Jack hugged him.

Ianto looked him in the eyes and lightly touched his face with finger tips. “It’s stress.”

“Yeah.”

“Me?”

“No.” Jack kissed him.

 

Boys and silly music and shoes. Sometimes Anwen Williams wished for normal. Then she’d look at her wrist-strap and wished John was there. She sat in one of the comfortable chairs in the conference room and removed the necklace from under her shirt. The gold band looked braided on top. Wynne’s grandfather wore his late wife’s wedding band on a necklace. He’d had it inscribed with “I will love you forever” in Welsh. She guessed it was an engagement ring, and that John assumed she wouldn’t figure it out.

The inscription made her wonder. Instead of love, it said peace.

Her wrist-strap sounded, interrupting her thoughts. “Computer, play notification.”

“Police report with key words. Steroids, water contamination, suspected terrorism.”

“Computer, open com. Uncle Jack, did you get that notification?”

“What notification?”

Anwen laughed. “You need to fix that glitch. Police report indicating biomechs and water contamination like my school.”

 

Jack Harkness read the report and grabbed his coat. The last water contamination situation hadn’t made sense. Targeting Anwen’s school with harmless nanotechnology got their attention and indirectly exposed Kol Puzzo. He doubted Oliveira intended acts of terrorism, but he had to check. Most likely, it was a distraction tactic. After failing multiple times to gain access or take the hub, he wondered if another attack was imminent. But he couldn’t ignore the known problem for a possible one.

Ianto stepped into the office as he was about to leave. “The hub changes included a section of files labeled John.” He held out an external hard drive. “If you need a distraction. It will affect the audio visual parts of the security sytem. Lights, images, sounds.”

“Why?”

“Oliveira knows you. You’re retro. The biomechs will expect something low-key.”

“Thanks.”

 

“Uncle Jack left?” Anwen Williams entered Jack’s office.

“Yep.” Ianto was seated at Jack’s desk reading his table.

“Do you have the armory open?”

Ianto looked up.

“The last time I was left with you in an emergency, we had a home invasion and an alien blew up the front of your flat.”


	6. Chapter 6

**Torchwood Three; Cardiff, Wales**

Ianto Jones felt ridiculous sitting in the conference room armed with more than his shoulder holster. He’d watched Anwen select her own weapons from the armory and wondered how it came to that. She sat across the table from him watching a cowboy film on her laptop.

“Computer,” Anwen said, “Secure building.”

Audible clicks and thuds followed the request. “Secured.”

Anwen turned off the movie and stood. The child he met when he first returned was gone.

“Computer, activate external speakers.”

“Active.”

“Oliveira and whatever arses are with him, this is Anwen Williams, head of Torchwood Global. I have survived dumb aliens, and dumber humans. I have dealt with more tantrums and male hysterics than any girl should have to in a life time.” She paused. “You’re no prophet. Just another aging fraud trying to overcompensate. Oliveira, buy a sports car. Buy a girlfriend or a boyfriend. Pills if you have to.” Pause. “Come into my house and you’re getting your arse kicked by a ten year-old girl. Nothing you can buy will fix your ego after that. Deactivate.”

Ianto stared at her. “The purpose of that?”

“The quickest way to get a guy to stop thinking straight is to insult his pride.”

“John?”

“No. Listening to Meghan, Cadic’s gold-digging wife. Cadic is dad’s friend. His complaining had dad thinking mom would leave him for Uncle Jack. A fist fight waiting to happen.” She was exasperated. “What would be the point of hitting Jack?”

“We need to a secure location.” The extent of the situation was occurring to him. There was no immediate back-up and he was defending the future of Torchwood against a former Torchwood agent.

“We can do this.”

He wasn’t so sure.

 

**Torchwood Canada; Nova Scotia**

John Hart’s wrist-strap beeped. He flipped it opened and did a remote medical scan on Anwen. Her vitals were all over the place.

“Anwen.”

“Hey.”

He could hear alarms in the background. “What’s happening, darling?”

“Oliveira and his minions are here. I can sense him. He has a time signature.”

“Whose with you?”

“Ianto. We’re better armed this time.”

Luc walked over, the questions obvious on his face.

“You secured the building and accessed the armory?”

“No, I decided to let the overcompensating arse in for coffee.”

John shook his head slightly. “Ianto, you there?”

“Yeah.”

“We are securing Nova Scotia. We need an outside location to portal in.”

“The upstairs lift is it.”

“I’m listed as compromised.”

“We’re with the mainframe,” Anwen said, “When you’re out of Canada, I can reactivate you.”

“Be careful. Avoid the Rift.”

“I hadn’t thought of it.”

“Too soon and you’ll be in a coma.” Or dead.

“Yeah, yeah,” Anwen said. “I don’t get paid for this. I want a pony.”

He knew what she was trying to do. “I do that and you’re mom is leaving me in a ditch somewhere.” The communication disconnected.

“What was that?”

“Torchwood Three is under attack. Ianto is support staff. The kid had a bad experience with an alien spaceship and a demonic planet killer. She’s recuperating in the hub.”

“I thought I had a bad day.”

 

**Williams Haulage**

Gwen Cooper felt conflicted the entire drive from Torchwood. Her and Rhys really needed time to themselves. Anwen’s sickness, Trefor being Trefor on top of her working for Torchwood full-time and Rhys’ business were stressing them out. With Ianto back, Rhys’ jealous mellowed. The last thing she needed to do was give him a valid reason to be jealous.

She wanted to kiss Jack. It wasn’t the first time. His appeal increased in stressful situations. With her luck, Ianto and Anwen would have witnessed it. Rhys would be angry, if he knew, but it would trigger Ianto’s PTSD. Not to mention put her her daughter in a situation to keep a secret from her father. Selfish. She’d given in to the temptation of stress relief with Owen before she was married. Giving into the selfishness with Jack would turn her world upside-down and potentially destroy her family. Rhys would hopefully be to busy to notice her state of mind, she thought.

More than a block away, she noticed the men in the car park. It could be innocent, but she doubted it. Gwen parked two block away and collected what weapons she had. Jack insisted she carry a modified stun gun after the biomech situation started. She was grateful.

As she approached slowly, the men’s lack of action made her even more suspicious. Gwen insisted Jack list Rhys with Torchwood so he’d be able to carry a gun legally. The home invasion hadn’t been the first time he’d proven he could defend himself. Which made her wonder if he’d done something to secure the office.

Sirens rose in the distance. They were too far away to tell what direction they were headed.

All she could do was move closer and look for a good firing location. If she was going to shoot the two she saw, she needed to be able to get both of them before one could take cover. When she was close enough, she noticed both men had injuries: bullet wounds and something else. One of the men was using his mobile. She quickly connected a directional microphone to her own.

“Some crazy woman. She threatened to disembowel us and play with our entrails. It’s not Cooper.” Gwen wasn’t close enough to get the other half of the conversation. “She’s armed with a modified stun weapon.”

Gwen removed texted Rhys. _What’s going on?_

_Keara from Torchwood Global is here to protect Trefor._

Gwen had no idea who that was. _Are you safe?_

_IDK._

“We’re going in.” Gwen heard over the mic and made a judgment call. They didn’t need to put on a show to capture her.

She stood, fired at one, dodged and hit the other. The weapon worked impressively. Both went down.


	7. Chapter 7

**Torchwood Three; Cardiff, Wales**

John Hart returned near the Millennium Center and the lift. Using a portal device with two people was ill-advised but he’d done it before. He crouched with Luc behind a building and eyed the area around the life. There was nothing obvious. But it had to be a trap.

“What do we do?”

“Wait.”

“Don’t they need to know we’re here?” Luc asked.

“She already does.”

Minutes passed. His wrist-strap beeped, and he flipped it open.

“Welcome back. Oliveira was waiting for you. He may know about the lift.” Anwen paused. “Uncle Jack is back.”

“Good.” John disconnected. He than said, “Jack Harkness.”

“Where are you?”

“Near the door you reserve for tourists.” John explained the location. “Anwen says Oliveira is nearby.”

“I will meet you. Give me five.” The connection ended.

“I have to ask,” Luc said, “We’re taking tactical information from a kid?”

A kid who can blow up spaceships and weapons in the Rift. “Yeah.”

 

Anwen Williams realized she could sense more than people with time signatures. The distortion weapon felt similar to the Rift but was different. “They’re coming in from the sewer or a storm drain,” Anwen said as an alarm sounded. “If I tell Uncle Jack or John they will reveal themselves to Oliveira trying to get to us.”

Ianto accessed a map of the hub on a tablet connected to the system. “The lower level was breached. We have cleaning bots and Weevils.” He sounded like he was talking to himself.

“Can you overload the giant Roombas?”

“No. I could flood the area and send in a bot.”

 

John Hart heard Jack approaching quietly. It wasn’t the first time they’d face a complicated situation. He thought those days were long behind him. Jack was a lot more forgiving since he gained immortality. But John had done things that couldn’t be forgiven.

“You should probably give the forties back their clothes,” Luc said.

John smiled.

“Anything?” Jack asked.

“No.” John’s expression changed. “Something is wrong. It’s too quiet.”

“Gwen and Ianto need wrist-straps.”

“Need what?” Luc asked.

Jack and John both held up their wrists.

“So they could coordinate with the kid?”

“No.” Jack said. “Oliveira blocked our coms and mobiles. I’d prefer not to discuss a siege with my niece.”

“He’s worried about his boyfriend. Eye-candy might have gotten a paper cut.”

Jack set his fist down with minimal force on the top of John’s head and left it there. “Scan readings are screwy.”

John thought about something. “Is Gwen suppose to be in there?”

“Yeah.”

“She’s not.

 

Ianto Jones watched as the intruders reached the water and hesitated. After a rudimentary check of the water, the men waded in. Part way through, he remotely accessed one of the bot, overrode the security features and sent it into the water. The results weren’t pretty.

Anwen grimaced.

“Yeah.”

All four men were obviously hurt. Three kept moving.

 

John Hart’s wrist-strap beeped with a security warning. He quickly checked the message.

“Why would Ianto be electrocuting the cleaning bots?” John was amused until he realized the answer.

Jack grabbed John’s shoulders. “That’s why. Oliveira is up here waiting for us to show ourselves.Ianto has it under control.”

“Like he had it under control the last time?”

“How well can this guy predict your behavior?” Luc asked.

“Accurately,” Jack said.

“And he expects both of you to act irrationally?” Luc held his hand up. “Seriously.”

“Yeah.”

“This entire area is probably a trap. Which you already know. Turn it on him.”

 

Ianto Jones didn’t like their options. It wasn’t the first time they’d threatened people with Weevils. Previously, they had no intention of following through. They were driven by rage and violence with some type of connection to the embodiment of Death. Most lived quietly in the sewers never bothering anyone. The ones that surfaced attacked or killed people and had to be contained.

“You’re releasing the creatures?”

“Yeah.” Their crimes didn’t make the decision any easier. “You don’t want to watch this.”

The biomechs entered one areas with cells. Ianto opened the doors.

Anwen close eyed before the intruders encountered the lumbering creatures that often came through the Rift. She hadn’t seen a Weevil up close, but she’d heard her mother and uncle talk about them. They were the embodiment of rage. Most harmless fed in the sewers. The ones they captured had come to the surface and attacked or killed people.

His attempts to internally justify his actions had little affect. It didn’t matter that killing was in the Weevil’s nature. They unwillingly fell through the Rift. The creatures didn’t chose to terrorize Cardiff.

“Can you sense when things come through the Rift?”

“Sometimes,” Anwen said sadly, “It’s stuff that goes the other way that worries me. I think I’ve stopped a couple people disappearing, but I’m not sure.”

After everything he’d dealt with in Torchwood, he could still be surprised. Ianto hadn’t thought about whether she could sense the occasional abductions. Without being able to predict the Rift’s behavior they had been unable to do anything about it.

Silence. “Why would anyone choose this life?”

“I worked at Torchwood London. Paperwork. After it fell, I had nowhere else to go.” It was mostly true. He couldn’t tell a ten year-old about the Cyberman attack on London or his attempts to save Lisa.

“I don’t know how Uncle Jack held on so long. The monsters and the aliens have to be bad enough. But the people?” She shook her head. “How does someone wake up one day and think today’s the day I terrorize, torture and maim.”

He didn’t know what to say.

“I don’t understand John either.”

No one does.

“He loves someone so much he’s trying to do what she asked while its tearing him apart. What kind of person would ask someone they love to do that?”

The carnage on the screen was more than he could stomach. The biomechs were actually holding their own against the Weevil’s in hand-to-hand combat.

“I don’t want to be a monster.”

“Jack says the future is always changing,” Ianto commented. “The world John remembers thirty years from now doesn’t exist anymore.”

“At least you’re here.”

Ianto doubted the reason for his return was altruistic.

 

John Hart had an idea. “Jack, do you want to reason with him?”

“What?” Luc asked.

“Something unexpected. We need a long enough distraction to get to the lift. Its not like he can kill you.”

“I missed something,” Luc said.

“A lot,” Jack said. “Any idea what I told him about you?”

“At least what happened with the radiation cluster bombs and Gray,” John said. “Does Ianto or Gwen know where we come from?”

“No.”

“Then maybe he doesn’t. I would guess he knows he can’t kill you.”

Jack took off his wrist strap and than his coat. “Give them both to Ianto when you get into the hub.”

“He can have it dry cleaned.”

Jack stood and walked into the open area near the lift. “Aman,” he called. “We need to talk.”

“What’s the hell is he doing?”

“Buying us time.”

“By getting himself killed?”

“You’re a physicist. Ask to look at his quantum energy scan when this is over.” Before he retcons the entire experience. “He’s a fixed point in time and space.”

“You’re both crazy.”

“Yeah.”


	8. Chapter 8

**Torchwood Three; Cardiff, Wales**

Aman Oliveira monitored the breach remotely. Jack’s lover was proving himself more capable than Jack remembered him. He’d heard numerous Ianto stories over the years. Jack’s survivor guilt transformed the memories and the relationship into an epic romance. From what Aman could tell, Jack loved Gwen and dated Ianto because he was available. He took him for granted. Ianto’s death heightened the emotions and further complicated his relationship with Gwen.

Pot meet kettle, Aman thought. Kailen’s death nearly destroyed him. He’d devised plans for his younger self, Kailen and Eryn. If only he could prevent that sunny afternoon in DeWaal Park.

Then maybe he wouldn’t have become a man capable of what he had in mind. Jack would volunteer to approach him as a distraction to allow John and the kid to reach the lift. Jack’s immortality was an oddity he learned early. He didn’t want to hurt the man that would have been his lover. Taking control of Torchwood was absolutely necessary. Anwen could not be allowed to take over. Torchwood needed an army to prevent what was coming.

Even justifying it, hurt. But it had to be done. Jack would regenerate over a matter of days. It would give him time to do what had to be done. Once he had control, he could destroy the Southern Asia facility that was preparing to redirect the Rift. An insanity that could destroy the atmosphere.

“I’m sorry, Jack.”

 

Ianto Jones hoped Jack could deal with Oliveira soon. Memories of the day Lisa, or what was left of Lisa, went on a rampage in the hub were surfacing. The biomechs breached near where he’d kept her charging station on a lower level. He could hear her voice before failed to keep Owen from opening the Rift.

Damnit. Ianto took deep breaths.

“No.” Anwen returned his thoughts to the present. She’d connected with the Rift. Something he’d seen it too many times already. After a moment, she looked at him with feverish eyes. “Tell John he deserves better.”

He caught her as she collapsed.

Memories of Lisa swirled as he carried Anwen to the infirmary. They blurred with his sister asking him about Jack in the days leading to his death by the 456. He knew the accusations were not theirs. His sister accepted Jack, and Lisa never met him.

“Keep it together.”

Have you gone bender? Lisa sneered. Is that why you couldn’t save me?

Ianto stumbled, leaning against the wall as he had the first time he came to the hub with Anwen. Do you have no mercy? He could smell blood mingled with barbecue sauce. You couldn’t save me.

“I tried, Lisa.” Tears flowed down his cheeks.

He forced himself to move. Anwen needed help. There was nothing he could do for Lisa. He failed her before Anwen was born.

 

John Hart entered Torchwood’s infirmary, unsure why Ianto hadn’t responded to multiple intercom questions. Anwen rested peaceful. A remote medical scan confirmed she was unconscious again.

“John,” Luc said from across the room.

Ianto was seated on the floor with his back to a wall and his arms resting on top of his knees.

“I couldn’t save you.”

John motioned Luc back. “Ianto,” he said careful, “Anwen’s fine.”

That had no affect.

“I did love you.” Ianto’s eyes were unfocused. “Torchwood was burning. I couldn’t get to you in time.”

John set Jack’s coat and vortex manipulator on a cot and opened his own for a medical scan. Physically, Ianto was fine.

“What’s wrong with him?” Luc asked.

“Post-traumatic stress,” John explained. “He’s reliving something.”

John grabbed Ianto’s tablet. It might tell them what happened in the hub. It was still remotely connected to the CCTV cameras on the lower level. A biomech sat near the bodies of three Weevils. He was seriously injured but alive.

“Stay here.” Unsure of what to do with Ianto, he handed Luc a standard stun weapon from one of the drawers. “Use this if he attacks you.”

“What?”

“He has no idea who you are and is trapped in his memories. He could behave irratically.” John handed Luc the tablet. “I have to deal with him.”

“Are those aliens?” Luc asked as John left the infirmary.

 

John found the last of the biomechs, a second gen muscle head from the looks of him, sitting on the floor in a sectioned off area.

“What is your boss trying to accomplish?”

“A global biomech program for Torchwood.” The man looked defeated, knowing he was about to die.

“How did he expect to get that passed Jack?”

The man shook his head. Impressive since he barely had a neck.

John fired, putting the mangled soldier out of his misery.

 

**Fellowship of Inner Peace; Nigeria**

With the bomb’s unexpected disappearance, Aman Oliveira returned home. The child’s taunt made him re-evaluate what Idrissa told him before he left for Cardiff. He should have listened. The situation was beyond anything he could impulsively handle. Ten year-old Anwen Williams had control of the Rift, an impossibility from everything he understood of her ability, and was already a part of Torchwood. Had he not experienced it, he wouldn’t have believed it.

Video coverage of the area showed Jack and John with the kid from Nova Scotia. From their body language, Aman could only conclude that Jack forgave him. That alone had him questioning everything. John left Gwen for dead, threatened Ianto and was responsible for Sato and Harper’s deaths.

There was something going on that he couldn’t understand nor anticipate. Foreknowledge and extensive planning failed. Aman paced.

Idrissa voice came over intercom. “We have footage of the woman who prevented the attack on the Williamses.”

Finally, good news. He strode through the familiar hallway. The building had been his in two time periods. The first as a reopened Torchwood office as part of the Global network. Now as a fake religious retreat and cult. He didn’t understand his own life at times.

Idrissa’s office was down the hall from his own. He ducked through the archway.

“Facial recognition is confusing. It automatically uses age progression.” He showed Oliveira the image. “Keara Montfert. She left with Colin Doyle. Except this woman’s too old. According to our records on her future potential, she was dead before Torchwood changed the past.”

That was not the woman he remembered.


	9. Chapter 9

**Torchwood Three; Cardiff, Wales**

**Monday, September 23, 2019**

Of all the years Jack Harkness had been with Torchwood, he’d seen the impossible and the insane. Aliens, human monsters, artifacts and technology. An in-house conflict worse than office politics was new. He was playing three dimensional chess with multiple opponents. The most ridiculous aspect was they all wanted the same thing.

He needed information that hadn’t been provided. If Anwen in the future orchestrated everything and Oliveira had been his confidant for twenty years, he was at a distinct disadvantage. They knew him. The only one of them they didn’t know was Ianto but after the last attack, he wasn’t up for discussing the situation.

Gwen Cooper stepped in. “Rex sends his love.”

Jack had to laugh. Rex couldn’t stand him.

“The CIA is working the problem for their own reasons. Rex thinks a group of Russian ex-pats are behind the attacks on Moss-Probert affiliates. He isn’t sure why or isn’t sharing.”

“How’s he doing?”

“Someone started a rumor he’s a vampire. He’s been leaving the investigators a trail of purchases and payments. A coffin and soil from Transylvania and an invoice for pest control for bat problems.”

Jack laughed more.

“I don’t think he’s joking.” Gwen chuckled.

“What did I miss?” Ianto entered the office from back.

Gwen explained.

Ianto asked, “He’s the American that calls you World War II?”

“Yeah.”

“I need a break.” Ianto rubbed his head. “Trefor’s aim is getting better.”

“Sorry.”

“Luc could babysit for awhile,” Jack suggested.

“No.” Ianto shook his head slightly. “Anwen would throw blocks.”

Gwen laughed, heading for the back of the office.

“Are you okay?” Jack asked.

“Mostly.” Ianto sat on the edge of his desk.

“Anything I can do?”

“No.” Ianto sighed. “The smallest stresser and I’m hearing Lisa’s voice again.”

Jack set a hand on his leg. “You’re safe.”

Ianto hesitated. “I woke alone.”

Jack set the paperwork aside. “I was on the roof.” He reminded himself to be patient. Ianto couldn’t help having post-traumatic-stress.

“It’s stupid.”

“No.” Jack wanted to outright ask Ianto about the current concern. The nightmares increased after John moved into the building. He’d assumed to begin with it was a security concern until Ianto had finally explained. “The CIA thinks a group of Russians are behind the attacks on Oliveira and Moss-Probert. After I look into that, we can have dinner. Maybe at a restaurant.”

“Ask John.” Ianto stood. “His friend Keara is at the retreat in Kenya. It was founded by Russian psychics. Keara escaped Africa with Colin Doyle. Miriam Morgans, the woman who blew up the MP facility, is there to.” Ianto rubbed his face. “The files on that group are terrifying.”

 

John Hart’s mobile rang. He checked the screen. Ken was calling. After how things ended, he hadn’t expected to hear from Ken again. “Hey.”

“A friend of yours dropped something off.” Ken didn’t sound happy.

That immediately concerned him. “I don’t have any friends locally. Tell me exactly what happened.”

Ken’s description didn’t sound familiar. The man dropped off an open manila envelope with large photographs in it.

“Half-an-hour. Stay in the store. If anything is off, contact security and tell them Torchwood in on the way.”

“What’s going on?”

“I don’t know.”

John came onto the main floor near the tourist office exist. “Is Jack in his office?” He asked Luc.

“Yeah.”

“Stay in the hub. Possible security problem. Someone approached Ken at work.”

“Who’s Ken?” Luc asked as he ran up the stairs.

“My ex.”

“Good,” Jack said, as he entered the office. “I have questions about the Kenya retreat.”

“It has to wait.” John explained what happened.

Jack grabbed his coat.

 

**St. David’s Mall**

Jack parked as close as he could. John said nothing during the short drive. Jack once understood him. John made more sense as a homicidal addict than he did in the past few months.

“I’ll check the mall.”

“What’s wrong?”

“I destroy everything I touch.”

Jack realized Ken hadn’t been to the building. “Stay close.”

“Yeah.”

Jack strode across the mall. He got a few smiles from tired mothers or nannies with small children, and overheard a small girl ask if he was wearing a costume.

“Hey.”

“John’s not here?” Ken looked passed him.

“He’s checking the mall.”

Ken handed him the envelope. “Is he doing okay?”

“I don’t know.”

Ken looked guilty. “I can’t compete with her.”

“Who?”

“The woman he loves. He wouldn’t even tell me her name.” Ken sighed. “He still wears the ring he bought her on a chain around his neck.”

Jack wasn’t sure what to say. “It’s hard to compete with a ghost.”

“John didn’t tell me she was dead.”

Jack carefully opened the envelope, and paged through pictures of a woman from security footage. “Did the man say anything?”

“Not much. He sounded Welsh.”

“Be careful. Have security walk you to your car.”

Ken nodded. “John went through the whole paranoid security thing.”

 

Unsure of what to say, Jack said nothing. They returned to the van.

“Who is she?” Jack asked handing John the envelope and pictures.

“Keara.” John removed the pictures. “Except,” he trailed off, looking closer at one of the images. “This is not the Keara I knew. The one in this time is eighteen. The future one had scars. Broken bones, mortar, she had a thing about scars on her face, but she kept the rest. This woman has none of the obvious ones.” He focused on one of her face. “I’d guess she was a few years younger than the woman I knew.” John exhaled. “That Keara died.”

“That’s why you sent her to Africa.”

“Yeah.”

“And Miriam Morgans?”

“The best place for her. She needed peace. And she couldn’t safely be anywhere else. Not until the war.”

“Any reason the Refuge would go after Oliveira or MP?”

“Possibly.” John looked at him. “Why?”

He explained about the CIA information.

“The Refuge was founded by former Russian psychics. Few people bother them. They have a scorched Earth policy. The general went to school with twins that would later join the refuge. The friendship contributed to military agreements and his promotion.”

A thought occurred to Jack. “What’s Keara’s ability?”

“She is/was an impressive tactician. A precog. She preferred long games. She would add in one place and subtract somewhere else. People, weapons, information. Sometimes she would start rumors that would take years for results.” John stared at the picture. “Hell.”


	10. Chapter 10

**Torchwood Three; Cardiff, Wales**

**Thursday, October 5, 2017**

Luc Sarkisian grew more and more confused by everything he found out about Torchwood Three and its unusual staff. While reorganizing the medical records, he noticed a discrepancy. He found John evaluating back-logged inventory. Another of the numerous puzzled. John Hart’s profile listed him with the rank of Captain and command authority in Torchwood London or Torchwood Global which didn’t exist. Nothing explained why a senior field agent was treated as the lowest ranking in the office.

“I need to ask something. It’s indelicate.”

John kept working. “Am I the right person to ask?”

“Yeah. We’re the outsiders here.”

“No. I’m an outsider. You just haven’t been here long.”

“That’s part of what I don’t understand.” Luc wasn’t even sure how to say.

“Ask.”

“I’ve been trying to figure out the social dynamics.”

“Meaning what?”

“Everyone has or is sleeping with the boss.”

John started laughing. “You’re safe. Ianto doesn’t share.”

“I was organizing medical records. Trefor’s are inaccurate.”

That ended John’s amusement. “Jack didn’t have an affair with Gwen. They were drugged and came out of it three days later.”

“Why are the records wrong?”

John turned to look at him. “For Gwen. It’s not a secret. Not here. Not from her husband.”

“I don’t understand any of this. I could even understand the kids in the conference room after everything. Except one of them is technically in charge.”

“It involves time travel. You don’t believe in time travel.”

Luc kept his opinion to himself. “Explain.”

“I met Anwen twenty-three years in the future. Unable to win a multiple front war, Anwen ordered the past changed to prevent it.” John took a moment. “Did you hear about the 456?”

Everyone heard about that. “Yeah.”

“The hub was destroyed by the British government. Ianto was killed by the 456.”

Luc wanted to declare bullshit. Except it explained some of what he overheard.

“Anwen returned the hub with upgrades, and a few problems. She sent her own wrist-strap, which has direct access to Torchwood, back to her younger self. It gave ten year-old Anwen command authority,” John said. “To force Torchwood Three to accept me after everything, I have command authority.”

“That no one recognizes.”

“Current Anwen is why they haven’t killed me.”

“What did you do?”

John hesitated. “I’m a recovering addict. I wasn’t recovering when I came to Cardiff the first two times. A former Time Agent obsessed with money. I nearly killed the team and threw Jack off a roof. And worse.”

“Uh.”

“Yeah.”

“Why would anyone trust you?”

“They don’t. As long as I’m sober, its not a problem. If I live long enough to relapse, Jack will put me down.”

 

Jack Harkness claimed the head of the table. Gwen sat on one side. Luc and John on the other. Ianto distributed coffee. It felt almost normal. Even with Anwen and Trefor in the corner.

“It appears Oliveira had photographs left for John.” Ianto distributed photo-quality copies images. “Keara Montfert is currently eighteen. We’re estimating the woman in the picture is about thirty years-old. Oliveira and John returned from 2049. Keara from that time died in 2042.” Ianto paused. “John dated Keara in the months before she died. She had distinctive scaring this woman does not have. Which is the only reason we can think for anyone leaving the pictures.”

“Genetic quirk,” Luc said, obviously puzzled.

“Keara is a precog with impressive tactical skills,” John countered. “Someone has been manipulating time changes. The Keara I knew was capable of it.”

Luc hesitated. “Say this woman has manipulated time, space and aliens, why would she? If she’s not from this time line, what’s in it for her?” Luc held up the picture. “And why couldn’t she dodge CCTV?”

Anwen walked over to the table next to her mom and looked at the top picture.

John met his gaze and rolled his eyes.

Jack smiled. “Life isn’t that simple.”

“What does she want?” Gwen asked.

“Terminator,” Anwen said. “Instead of Skynet, she wants Oliveira and the scary soldier’s gone.”

Luc groaned.

“She wants specific circumstances.” John looked at Jack again. John had something to add he wasn’t going to say to the team. Or Anwen.

“I have Nova Scotia work. Am I needed for this?”

“No.”

Luc quickly headed out.

“Should we do anything? We have Ianto, the hub…” Gwen trailed off.

“We need to know what she’s doing and why,” Jack said.

 

Jack motioned John aside. “What didn’t you share?”

“Two things. The building where all of us live. Cardiff gifting it to Torchwood was unusual.” John hesitated. “And Trefor, Torchwood’s great general, was conceived under bizarre, yet to be explained circumstances.”

Jack waited.

“Anwen now has me wondering about everything that happened. When I worked for Torchwood Global there were odd-defying circumstances. The Varaxi crystals should have made me wonder. I spent my downtime to drunk and high to care. Then I met Keara who was as broken as I am, and she kept me going.” John closed his eyes. “When Keara died, I nearly drank myself to death. Trefor dragged me back just in time.”

“Why did Anwen say she was sending you back?”

“She didn’t want to sacrifice both of us. I begged her to leave with me. I even proposed. But she insisted she had to go down with the ship.”

“Could that Anwen destroy a ship in the Rift?”

“I don’t know.”

“A ten year-old, with no idea what she was doing, took out a clockwork god.”

“You think my Anwen is here?”

“How broken was she?”

“I don’t know. After she saved me, I saw her as this perfect angel.” John paused. “Anwen had her mother’s temper. And she could be downright brutal. When I couldn’t get to a wannabee warlord that sided with Oliveira, she sent Miriam after him. Miriam tore through him and his soldiers and left them where they fell as a deterrent.”

Jack knew what the job could do to a person. While he couldn’t connect his niece to that, growing up as part of Torchwood had to have consequences.

“These changes did a lot more than prevent events. You have Ianto. I’ve been given the chance to redeem myself. Miriam might not lose Thomas. Keara is safe at the Refuge.”

Jack wondered if it had something to do with redemption. By bringing John here, and forcing Anwen to use her ability earlier, it could change how Anwen would later see the world.


	11. Chapter 11

**Fellowship of Inner Peace; Nigeria**

**Friday, October 6, 2019**

Keara watched in her mind’s eye. Miriam’s army attacked as the first rays of sunlight filtered into the compound. Oliveira ordered the acolytes to surrender over the intercom as screams filled the silent hallways. The soldiers were killed. The psychics were tranquilized. His world burned.

She sympathized with Aman Oliveira. Regardless of his intentions, he created a home and family for many that had nothing. The lost and the lonely found purpose, albeit misguided, and a place to belong. Perhaps it was the consideration he showed in the end. Not only for the acolytes, but Idrissa. There were rumors about the two. She hadn’t cared who slept with who. Oliveira could have left Idrissa behind. He only had enough time to chose between his lover and his information.

Miriam had an aptitude for leadership. She took the facility with minimal injuries and no unwanted deaths.

Keara woke from the trance with tears flowing down her face. Viewing the battle had been a training exercise. Her education was complicated by an ongoing argument over what type of psychic ability she had. A rarity at the Refuge. One of the leaders was adamant that her remote-viewing was a parlor trick and not part of her actual ability.

 

**Hughes Flats; Cardiff, Wales**

Frustration over work, his relationship and life in general sent Jack Harkness to the roof. It was cold in the early hours of an October morning. Ianto followed him from their flat. He’d woke just after dawn from a nightmare. A warm bath and music made more sense than sitting on the roof watching him think.

“You should go back to bed.” Jack called over his shoulder.

“I’m fine.”

Ianto wasn’t fine. He was cold, tired and paranoid.

Reluctant to abandon his pseudo meditation, Jack sat on a makeshift bench next to him. “Luc or Rhys?”

Ianto smiled.

Jack reached for Ianto’s hand and twined their fingers together. “Talk to me.”

“It’s nightmares.” Ianto sighed. “Absurd nightmares.”

“The elderly nudist has his shades up again.”

Ianto laughed. “No.”

“I will keep guessing.”

Ianto’s body languages shifted and he all but whispered. “The grim reaper.”

Jack kissed Ianto’s forehead.

The access door opened and a man stepped onto the porch. He looked familiar somehow, even with large sunglasses. He quickly removed them.

“Forgive me for assuming you wouldn’t be making out on the roof in October.”

Jack released Ianto’s hand and stood.

“We need new locks.” Ianto grumbled.

“General Trefor Williams.”

Ianto stood. “Already guessed that. We have coffee in the kitchen.”

“Why are you here?” Jack asked.

“If he has blocks, I’m shooting him.” Ianto disappeared through the access door.

 

General Trefor Williams wasn’t sure what to expect. The Jack he knew growing up was a confirmed bachelor. Mom was the only person he’d seen that settled Jack down. He’d heard Ianto stories, but interpreted them differently than his sister did. He suspected most of the grand romance was survivor’s guilt.

The flat looked much different than the ones the Jack he knew had over the years. “Nice decorating. He definitely has better taste than you do.”

Jack shrugged off his coat.

“I was sixteen. I got into it with Rhys about…” Trefor trailed off, obviously trying to think. “I don’t know. I decided I was going to live with you. The flat looked like a military bunker.”

“Really ugly military desk?” Ianto set coffee mugs on the table.

“Yeah.”

Ianto motioned behind him. “In the office.”

Trefor laughed.

“Why are you here?” Jack asked.

“Monitoring the insanity.”

Jack sat at the table. “Explain this to me.”

Trefor sat across from him.

Ianto remembered what Oliveira had said about Trefor. They looked so much alike. Not just facial features but body language.

“When Torchwood Three was destroyed, it left the area without a monitoring station. The aliens figured out how to cross through without being noticed. By 2029, the situation was potentially impossible to reverse. Mum ran a small Torchwood office. When it got bad, Anwen dropped out of college. Rhys’s trucking company was little more than a Torchwood front. With a growing security problem, I had to be home-schooled.” Trefor paused. “You met Aman Oliveira in Nigeria following a lead on an artifact at the former office. He helped. The relationship helped a lot in the beginning.”

Trefor stared off as if remembering. “I was eighteen and packed to move out. Living with Anwen and mum was intense. Then Rhys died. He’d survived so many things to be killed by a drunk driver. The woman had money and nothing was done. When she disappeared, and was later found dead, we were all suspects.” Trefor focused on Jack. “Mum did what you could imagine. Torn by grief and trying to run the office with her children, she begged you to come home. That went as expected, except the amount of guilt. It was too much.” Pause. “I was twenty-three and in Africa trying to negotiate a Torchwood arrangement with the Kenya refuge when Moss-Probert got mum. Anwen couldn’t find you. I couldn’t leave. She planned mom’s funeral by herself; neither of us made it.” Pause. “The next five years were a blur of bad situations. Two of Anwen’s boyfriends died. I lost a lover. A long-term friend disappeared; which was never resolved.”

“What justified changing the past?”

“MP, and companies like them, were taking over third world countries and making backroom deals with aliens. The usual claims of pharmaceutical research and security concerns. It had a lot more in common with Hitler. The genetic purity movement made it worse. By 2044, the biomechs were in full production. When combined with cloning and rapid aging, it was a nightmare. We were fighting corporate armies and aliens. Torchwood Global space station became the home of our space fleet.”

“General?”

“I started leading ground troops, coordinating with the Refuge. When we had ships, there weren’t a lot of people who could fly them. MP tried infiltrating defense forces with biomechs. We had to genetic imprint everything. Then MP got the bright idea to clone pilots with imprints. My hybrid DNA is hard to clone.” A beat. “The final decision was forced by Miriam. She was the best option, but I was the better pilot.”

“Why show yourself now?” Ianto asked.

“The odd-defying situations and the coincidences had to have been noticed by now.”

 

Anwen Williams sat in the stairwell and waited. The newcomer had a time signature similar to Oliveira’s and had been invited into Jack’s flat. It didn’t take much to guess.

“How did you know?” Trefor approached.

“I know my baby brother.”

Trefor laughed.

“Do I really become a monster capable of playing games with people’s lives? Ianto is afraid of his own shadow.” She removed the chain from under her pajama top. “John is self-destructing. Either one of them could jump off the roof tomorrow.” She was near the point of losing it. “What gave us the right to play god?”

“Ianto needs time. The PTSD was unexpected.” As was her questioning him, apparently. “John is a rabid dog.”

Anwen took a deep breath. “That rabid dog is why I’m still alive.”

“You’re not old enough to understand.”

“I’m old enough to kill ships full of sentient beings in defense of the planet. I’m old enough for you to explain this to me.”

Trefor said nothing.

“You wouldn’t understand, darling,” John said from farther down the stairs. He walked up behind Anwen, setting a hand on her shoulder. “War changes a person. General Williams is a younger version of your uncle. He became a soldier to protect the planet from aliens. Jack became a leader. Different circumstances.”

“What have you done?” Trefor demanded.

“Go back to your flat,” John said.

Anwen wanted to stay and hear what her brother had to say for himself.

“Go.”


	12. Chapter 12

**Torchwood Three; Cardiff, Wales**

Gwen Cooper sat on a chair using an end table for her laptop in Jack’s office. Ianto unearthed the furniture somewhere. She rubbed the back of her neck. “Luc needs a lab.” Her kids were in the conference room. Luc was using all of the computer consoles on the main floor. That left storage areas where John worked. Or the cells near the Weevils.

“Ianto’s working on it.”

The computer beeped. Gwen clicked keys. “Did we ever figure out why MP needed equipment for a biolab?”

Jack looked up. “No.”

“The company with the biolab equipment hired a shipping company to deliver a truckload of heavy crates to the Port of London. There are no freight shipments listed for MP. One of the ships docked is suspected of smuggling. It filed bad paperwork, and didn’t unload in port. Interpol documented sightings in southeast Asia. There is a privately owned island near Vietnam which flags law enforcement in the area, and Interpol. I would have to contact Rex.”

“He’d send the CIA,” Jack said.

“I’m running searches on other ships. There are two more with issues. Not counting the drug shipment, a gun runner and exotic animals,” Gwen said. “I notified locals and Interpol.”

The door opened and Ianto entered. He had his jacket off and his sleeves rolled up.

“What happened?” Jack asked. “Is that confetti?”

“John did maintenance on the bots.” Ianto was still plucking at confetti. “Unless he likes calypso music and psychedelic colors, he had help.”

Jack laughed.

“Where are my kids?” Gwen asked after a moment.

Ianto seemed to just notice Gwen. “Anwen implied you were staying in the conference room with them.”

 

John Hart reviewed the schematics for the third time. The small maintenance bot was not built according to the designs. He either needed to load a technical program to troubleshoot the designs or talk Luc into fixing it. After seeing the kid’s robotics in Nova Scotia, it would have been no problem. But it meant admitting he couldn’t fix a basic maintenance bot.

The desk phone rang. “Hart.”

“Where are you?”

“The maintenance office I set up.”

“Are the kids with you?”

“Yeah.” Something crashed and sizzled in the background.

“What are you doing?”

“Repairs. Trefor is playing Godzilla with blocks and an energy cage,” John said. “Am I on speaker?”

“No.”

“He takes after his father. He’ll charm you and then throw a block at your head when your guard is down.”

“Ha ha.”

John lowered his voice. “Anwen’s been hovering. She’s worried and feeling guilty. I don’t know what to say to her.”

“I’ll talk to her.” Jack held up his hand to Gwen. “No more confetti.”

John laughed. “Luc deserved it.”

“Ianto didn’t find it funny.”

“Make Luc set up his own lab.”

“John’s office.” Jack said in the background.

Another crash and sizzle. Anwen giggled.

“What kind of energy cage?”

“It absorbs inertia and projectiles stick to it,” John explained. “It keeps him from hurting himself or anyone else.”

Jack couldn’t help but laugh. “A modified ballistic shield?”

“It works.”

 

**Tuesday, September 24, 2019**

Luc Sarkisian happily settled into his new lab. He wanted to go home, but it would do while he was there. An unfamiliar alarm sounded. When he pulled up the details, the readings were not only insane but theoretically impossible. Having grown up with parents who worked for Torchwood, he’d seen and heard a lot. Since coming to Wales, the crazy had gotten worse. Even the teleport device John used to get them to Wales was possible.

He had no idea how he was going to present an absurd impossibility. He transferred the information to a tablet and headed upstairs. The rudimentary lab gave him privacy, space and his sanity, but was a longer walk.

Jack was at one of the main floor consoles.

“We have a problem.”

Jack looked up.

“I have reviewed the information, repeated what tests I could and even recollected some data. A portal is being opened over an island.”

“Near Vietnam?”

“Yeah. It’s exhibiting energy similar to Hart’s device and the Rift.” The idea was too insane. “I think the facility is creating a portal based on a similar device but on a massive scale. They’re trying to redirect something from the Rift.”

Jack tapped his wrist strap. “Anwen.”

“Yeah?”

“Is the Rift currently doing anything?”

It took her a moment. “Possibly.” She hesitated. “Why would the Rift have portal energy?”

“Don’t mess with it. Everyone needs to meet in the conference room.”

Luc wasn’t sure he wanted to know. “How would she know?”

“Anwen is the reason someone would try to redirect where a ship exits the Rift.”

“What?”

 

Jack Harkness assembled everyone in the conference room after Luc approached him. Luc explained the Rift redirect again. Even working for the Torchwood, the physics prodigy thought the universe operated on rules he understood. The impossible was simply something he hadn’t seen yet.

“That’s suicide,” John said.

“I don’t think its a portal,” Anwen said, “Not like Oliveira arriving or John bringing Luc from Canada. More like a mirror.”

Luc stared at the table.

“The Rift is a big tear in time and space, Luc. Random things get tossed out or dragged in. Maybe there is a world where the Rift is somewhere else. Or,” Anwen trailed, “I don’t know. I would like to take up bad fashion ideas and listening to boy bands rather than figure out temporal physics.”

Jack looked at John.

“Don’t look at me. I was no more sober through the lectures than you were.”

Anwen eyed them. “Google. The Time Agents don’t know how time travel works and the physicist doesn’t believe in it.”

Gwen set a hand lightly on her head.

“We need to destroy the device,” Luc replied. “Whatever it is or does, it’s affecting the Rift.”


	13. Chapter 13

**Torchwood Three; Cardiff, Wales**

General Trefor Williams entered the Torchwood Three hub and marveled at the sewer installation. His parents had described it to him more than once when he was a kid. His sister had asked if it came with mutant turtles. One of his mother’s co-workers had been known for ordering pizza. With John in house, they even had a giant rat.

“General.” Ianto Jones walked down the metal steps.

“This is Torchwood?” He couldn’t imagine working there. His father had once lived in his office.

“It serves its purpose.”

Trefor reminded himself his father was dating the butler, and he’d just insulted the hub Jones took pride in maintaining. “Where are we meeting?”

“The conference room.” Jones walked away.

He’d been snubbed and he deserved it. He walked around eying the computer consoles and the technology. It made him appreciate a couple of the lesser offices he’d avoided. They were better.

A familiar looking teenager climbed the steps from a lower level. The kid stared at him. After a moment, he placed why he looked familiar. Luc Sarkisian. From what he remembered vaguely, Sarkisian came from Canada.

“Where’s the conference room?”

“It would be easier if I showed you.”

Trefor nodded. “Thanks.” The kid definitely didn’t sound local. “General Williams.”

“Yeah.” He introduced himself.

Trefor followed. “You’re based out of Cardiff?”

“Temporarily. I came from Nova Scotia. Oliveira’s assholes nearly destroyed my office.”

Different from the Sarkisian he remembered. It was a running joke he had Canadian manners.

The conference room had a large table in the center. Trefor was relieved not to see his mother. Jack was at the head of the table. John took the opposite end. Sarkisian sat looking like he’d rather be somewhere else. Trefor sat across from him.

“Did you deal with a lab off the coast of Vietnam?” Jack asked.

“Yeah. Moss-Probert’s last stand. Heitt died there.” He’d avenged mom.

“Luc discovered a massive portal device at the facility. It’s trying to redirect the Rift.” Jack handed him a tablet.

“That’s insane.” Trefor read the information. “This is the global destroyer I was warned about. If the device malfunctions or the facility is attack while its being used, the Rift damage would be catastrophic.”

“Keara?” John asked.

“Yes. There was another Montfort describing that scenario in another fifteen years or more.”

Jack asked, “Is it possible it’s the same lab?”

“Possibly. The facility should not have been built yet.”

“Luc,” John said, “Do we have details?”

“Some. Satellite imagery is bad. The building has some type of masking technology. Older maps indicate ancient ruins on the island with an underground structure.”

“How did you take the facility?” Jack asked.

“With Miriam’s team. It was bloody.”

“Jack.” John anticipated his response. “She’s not that person yet.”

“Call her.”

“You know Miriam already?” Trefor wondered.

Ianto stepped into the conference room as John stood. “There is a Bobby Zhao in the tourist office. He said he represents the Kenya Refuge.”

Jack stood and motioned to John.

“The Ferryman?” Trefor asked.

“What do you of him?”

“He’s highly respected by the Refuge and potentially more dangerous than Miriam,” The general explained. “How do you know him?”

“The Refuge sent him for Miriam.”

That puzzled him. “How did Miriam find the refuge?”

“I gave her contact information,” John said as Jack left the conference room. “Keara is there also.”

Trefor was still trying to process that as John left.

 

Jack Harkness entered the tourist office from the hallway. Bobby Zhao stood at the counter reading one of the brochures Ianto kept stocked to maintain the illusion. He looked like a jovial tourist without a care in the world.

“Captain Harkness.” He ssmiled. “It’s good to see you again.”

“We were about to contact the Refuge.”

The elderly man nodded. “We have been monitoring the Moss-Probert situation.” He set a flash drive on the counter with a white business card with a black phone number. “Under most circumstances, the Refuge does not involve itself.”

“Thank you.”

Zhao nodded slightly. “Tell the general he’s welcome in Kenya when the crisis is over.”

 

General Trefor Williams left the conference room and wandered. A Weevil eyed him. He hadn’t seen one of the strange creatures since his sister stopped things from randomly falling through the Rift. The sound of a energy sizzle and laughter drew him to a maintenance room.

The younger version of his sister was sitting on the floor next to a toddler he could only imagine was himself. They appeared to be surrounded by a ballistic shield with blocks suspended in mid air. She eyed him a moment and went back to helping the boy build one of the towers that obsessed him a young child.

“Jack?” A familiar, puzzled voice came from behind.

“No.”

His mother gasped when he turned around. He should have known his mother wouldn’t leave her children to a mechanical babysitter.

“Who are you?” From her expression, she already knew.

“General Trefor Williams of the Torchwood Global space fleet.” He gave her a moment. “Hi, mum.”

“How?”

“A time travel device.”

She hesitated a moment before hugging him.

After everything, seeing her was the strangest. Ten years passed, and she looked younger.

Another block hit the shield with a sizzle. “I thought you exaggerated that?”

She stepped back and looked at him. “Did I mention when you stopped?”

“At three or four.” The general smiled. “Who converted the ballistic shield?”

“John. Self-preservation.”

“He babysits?” The general wasn’t sure he could picture that.

“Anwen’s doing.” She then thought of something. “Tell me your sister wasn’t dating that man.”

The general couldn’t help but laugh. “Five years.”

She shook her head. “Where did I go wrong?”

“You didn’t. She was…” That made him sad. He tried not to think about the fact that he’d never seen Anwen again. His sister had been there for him through everything. “Impressive.”

She set a hand on his upper arm.

 

Luc Sarkisian reviewed the flash drive data Zhao gave them in the conference room. “This is bad. If this information is correct, and it would be difficult to fake, Moss-Probert has impressive technology combining top-of-the-line current tech with derived alien tech. Possibly future tech.” Luc shook his head. “They are using several types of green energy to power their facility. Probably to stay hidden. But it wouldn’t be enough…”

A memory tugged. He’d had a conversation with someone about a device that would produce enough energy before the attack on his hub in Nova Scotia. The Arctic Research facility believed they had a quantum entanglement device. Which would fit the lab’s needs.

Luc hesitated. He didn’t want to be wrong. “Bryer Deselle contacted me before Oliveira hit Nova Scotia.” He explained what he knew about the device. “Deselle wanted instructions that didn’t require a physicist. I previously offered to transfer to that office. He gave me shit about being a kid.” Luc sighed. “I believed him.”

“When did you give him the instructions?” Jack asked.

“I didn’t. We’re not ready for that much energy. He wanted weapons or would sell it to someone who did.” Luc calmed himself. “I was right.”

“We assumed Oliveira wanted Luc for his Torchwood profile,” Jack said.

“His assholes attacked while I was on Skype with Deselle. They had no idea who I was. Deselle knows my background. No one with accurate information would attempt to breach a facility I secured. Or if they did, they would have been better prepared.”

Jack asked, “Would your defenses have held against the biomechs?”

“No. But I would have had the time to improvise, even without John’s input. It’s not the first siege I’ve withstood.”

“Aman didn’t want to blow up the planet,” John said.

“How do we avoid that?” Jack asked.

“I need to review my list from inventory.” He closed out the flash drive and removed it. “Files indicate a device capable of controlling the Rift. I need to know what it can do.”

“No,” John said.

Luc wondered about John’s change in tone. “I don’t need access to it. I need specs.” He looked around at the others. Jack, the general, and John had similar expressions. He didn’t think they ever agreed on anything. “What?”

“Leave it.”

Luc looked at Jack about to ask another question and than something occurred to him. Jack asked Anwen’s advice on the Rift. He couldn’t figure out why anyone was asking a ten year-old for information. He originally thought she had access to discussions because Torchwood was her family. He’d sat through any number of Torchwood discussions as a kid. But it was more than that. Anwen participated.

“We need a portable device capable of producing an area effect similar to a containment box.”

“How big?” John asked.

“Six square meters.”

John thought a moment. “A modified ballistic shield can handle that.”

Luc stared at John. “The playpen?”


	14. Chapter 14

**Rio de Janeiro, Brazil**

**Friday, October 6, 2017**

Aman Oliveira sat in a cafe in his birth town. He failed. The kids were safe, but his men were dead. He had no idea what angered the Refuge.

“Hi.” Felda Eiermann, a former associate of Colin Doyle, sat across from him, and opened a laptop. She’d been responsible for the destruction of the Fellowship offices in England.

Keara Montfert appeared on the screen. The Keara he knew in the future. “By now, you’re cursing me. I told you everything would work out in the end. And after seeing the CCTV footage, you’re wondering if I betrayed you. It’s a matter of perspective.” She laced her fingers together in front of her. “You told me you would do anything to save the world. You’d create an army. You’d take on Torchwood. You were even willing to blow up one of the few people you’ve ever truly cared about.” She paused. “You didn’t fail, Aman. Your task was not to kill Anwen or take over Torchwood. It was to do exactly what you did. The woman you saw in the CCTV pictures is not me. I died before you went back in time. That woman is another version of me. She’s from a time when the Earth was destroyed by a replica of the very lab Torchwood will soon be facing with the Refuge. A world where you volunteered for the insane task of sieging an alien space station. Humanity’s last hope.” She sighed. “I didn’t want to ask this of anyone. What you did had to be done to get everyone necessary in place. I asked for your death in exchange for the lives of Kailen and Eryn Sylla. That will be honored. But there is one last thing that needs to be done. The lab needs to be destroyed.” Pause. “The woman with you has the details. For what its worth, Aman, this wasn’t my choice. All the options have been considered. All of this had to be done to save the world from itself.” She placed her hand on the computer monitor. “I won’t live to see it either old friend.”

 

**Nearby Island, South of Vietnam, Southeast Asia**

John Hart arrived moments before Jack and the general. As expected, the rain was strong. He would have been soaked in minutes if he hadn’t worn rain gear. According to Zhao, Miriam’s new team was already on-site, and had arrived days earlier to monitor the situation.

Using a tree for shelter, he checked his wrist-strap. The entire area had questionable technology. Either the refuge brought alien tech with them or there was more than one problem.

Psychics and oddities had him wondering about Keara as he headed for base camp. The one he knew was an incredible psychic. The mission she died on, she went in knowing her odds of surviving were not good. She went anyway. Eighteen year-old Keara had incredible potential. The other Keara in the CCTV photographs was an unknown. Three different versions of the same woman with incredible insight.

After a short walk, he found a very solid tent. Miriam Morgans had a hand-drawn map over a large table. “The facility was designed to withstand a siege. The only possible advantage is the security is primarily robotic. One of the seers believes you’re familiar with the maintenance robots.”

“Do you have a picture?” John asked.

“A drawing.” Miriam handed it to him.

John held it out to Jack and Trefor. “A Torchwood Roomba. Which can be hacked.”

“How?” Miriam asked.

“I need to scan one remotely in Cardiff. I reprogrammed it.”

“To do what?”

Jack chuckled.

“It plays music and throws confetti.” John smiled. “It’s a long story.”

 

Jack Harkness eyed changing readings on his wrist-strap.

“That would be me,” Aman Oliveira stepped out of the woods next to him.

“Why are you here?”

“That lab is part of the reason I did what I did.”

Jack considered. “Do you know what defenses it has?”

“Alien. Moss-Probert was infiltrated. The infiltration now is worse than the original time line.”

“Liberty Dowsett?”

“Yes. From the extent of her cover, she was here for more than twenty years.” Aman paused. “We learned how to find and kill them. Where they were from and why was elusive.”

 

John found a quiet place to contact Anwen. “I need to remote scan the modified Roomba as I did for your school.”

“Okay.” She sounded stressed.

“What’s wrong?”

“Ianto’s upset. Mom’s worried.”

“We’ll be back soon.”

Anwen was quiet for a couple minutes. He could hear her walking through Torchwood Three.

“Since I’m helping take out the evil lab, that makes me part of Torchwood?” She sounded like she was trying to hide her amusement about something.

“Yeah.”

“I should get paid.”

John smiled. Which he suspected was her intention. “Extra lunch money?”

“I want a pony.”

“Your mom would shoot me.”

“Just a little pony.”

“Where would you keep it?”

“Ooh,” she paused as if reconsidering. “A goat could help dad with the lawn. But it’s not as cute.”

“You will have to settle for a modified Roomba.”

“Annoying Luc and electrocuting biomechs.” She made a humming noise as if considering it. “Workable.”

She was quiet again. “I found it. Ianto left it in your office with a note.” She hesitated. “You can read it when you get back.”

“Remote scan.” He quickly had the information he needed. “Thanks.”

“Be careful, John.” Anwen hesitated. “Remember Jack forgets those around him can get hurt.”

“Later, darling.”


	15. Chapter 15

**Nearby Island, South of Vietnam, Southeast Asia**

Miriam Morgans looked up from her map. “Now that everyone is here. We need to get started. The latest from the Refuge is we have two hours to get this done.”

“Hart, you’re dealing with the robots. Did you get the information?”

“Yeah.”

“Good. Harkness, Oliveira, you’re going for the power plant. I understand you have some way of dealing with the energy source?”

“Yeah.”

“Williams, we’re a man down for the ground assault.”

She looked at each of them long enough to meet their eyes. “From what I’ve been told, none of you are rookies in combat zones. This is a mess.” She took a moment. “The one advantage we have is the device is using all of their power. They’re effectively blind.”

“Blue.” Miriam pointed at a circle on the map. “This is the best location to access the bots remotely. I have two young women familiar with this part of the world who can get you there. One somewhat speaks English. Neither like men. Both hate Moss-Probert.” She pointed at the next target. “Orange. This powers the Rift device. Five security guards. All aliens. They have distortion technology. Your guide can smell them.” She tapped the last one. “Red. When the bots are disabled and the power plant is out of commission, the rest of us are hitting the facility. Even with psychics and the others, it will be bloody.” She met Williams eyes. “Most of us don’t use guns as our primary weapon. It will be brutal and merciless.”

“Miri,” Williams said, “I was with another version of you the last time I was here.”

Hart chuckled. “Don’t get alien brains in his hair this time.”

Williams swore under his breath.

“Do I want to know?”

“No,” Aman said.

Miriam handed out maps and made introductions. Each group was crossing between islands separately.

 

**Blue**

The last rays of sunlight filtered through the trees as John Hart followed the guides. He didn’t need to know the language they spoke to see they didn’t like him. Both made a point of showing they were armed with knives. That gave him an idea of why they hated men.

The trees were tall and dense. Although not familiar with the area, he knew a jungle or tropical zone should have birds, bugs and animals. The area was silent. Nothing moved but them. It made him uneasy.

Ten minutes later he heard a sound. Faint and impossible to identify. John stopped and removed knives. His various guns would give away his location and probably the others. Waiting felt like it stretched forever. Whatever approached was quiet.

Another sound, closer this time. What gave away the creature was its smell. The beast was known on many worlds and used for hunting and guarding. Taking on one with knives was not his first choice. He slipped a stun pellet from his pocket as quietly as possible. Also not advised, but he had a better chance of surviving.

The sound alerted the creature. It sniffed the air.

John waited. When the creature charged, he threw the pellet. It took longer than expected. The creature bit his arm before it fell unconscious. John slit its throat.

His guides reappeared a couple minutes later and eyed him and the dead creature. Then one motioned for him to follow and they headed back into the trees. John walked over the corpse and followed, wondering what else he hadn’t been told about the island.

 

**Orange**

Jack Harkness stood with Oliveira under a tree while they waited.

“You ask no questions?”

“You want to justify what you did?”

“No. You are uncharacteristically quiet.”

“You came to a war zone to listen to me talk.”

Aman laughed. “My actions have nothing to do with you. Believe it or not, not everyone falls hopelessly in love with Captain Jack Harkness.”

“I could argue that.”

“What did John or Trefor say?”

“That we were lovers for twenty years.”

“No.” Aman laughed. “Friends, occasional lovers.” The humor faded. “We bonded through survivor’s guilt. I lost my closest friend and lover. You lost Ianto.”

“And Gwen.”

“Trefor should not have told you.”

 

**Red**

“Miriam.” Chason ran over to her. “Hart succeeded. Harkness and Oliveira are on their way.” He look uneasy.

“What happened?” Miriam Morgans asked.

“Thi reported in. She and Binh are returning without Hart.” He hesitated. “There is a translation problem. But after gaining remote access to the security bots, and disabling them, he disappeared.”

That was worrisome. “Did they look for him?”

“He disappeared in front of them. One minute he was doing something with the thing on his wrist.” Chason motioned toward Trefor’s wrist-strap. “The next he was gone.”

“What’s the translation problem?”

“Binh thinks he said ‘bad timing’ right before he disappeared.”

Trefor looked at Miriam. “Ask if there was an orange energy distortion. He would have glowed.”

“Do it,” Miriam said.

After Chason left, she turned to him. “Why?”

“My sister may have grabbed him from the future. It’s hard to explain.”

 

**Orange**

Jack Harkness waded through combat with five aliens. Their guide was barely able to walk by the time they reached the generator. He had a mangled arm and a dislocated shoulder. Oliveira popped it back into place.

“We need to expand the ballistic shield around the device.” Jack said, “Enclose it in an energy box.”

They worked quickly and quietly. It was unsettling at times how easily Aman anticipated his actions.

“It didn’t work.” Their guide commented.

“We need to disrupt the device.”

Jack looked at Oliveira.

“I have seen this device before, Jack. It is from Nigeria Torchwood. An excavation before the colony was free of the British. It should be in protected storage.”

Jack started removing his protective gear.

“No. I know how.”

“Tell me. I will survive the explosion.”

“No. The quantum entanglement implosion will kill you.” Oliveira walked over to him. “I knew I would die today. I made a deal with Keara from my time. I would do what she needed to me to do. This. In exchange, the man I failed to protect will live.” He smiled wryly. “The world needs you. Not me.”

“I can survive anything.”

“Not this.” Aman kissed Jack’s forehead. “Take care of Ianto.”

Jack watched Oliveira walk toward the ballistic shield. He adjusted it enough to slip inside and it closed behind him. Without hesitation, he knocked the device over. The disruption destabilized the energy and it turned on itself. It imploded, fighting to draw the ballistic shield inward. When the vortex closed, there was nothing left in the shield.

 

**Red**

With the power gone, Miriam lead Trefor and the refuge ground troops into the facility. Outnumbered and overpowered, the enemy attempted to retreat. Barrier after barrier failed. Humans, sentient aliens and guard creatures fell.

As Miriam stood among her surviving troops, an odd sound arose in the hall. Tired, sore and covered in goo, she investigated. One of the remaining security bots was twirling in a circle, throwing shrapnel and playing calypso music.

Miriam laughed.

 

**Torchwood Three; Cardiff, Wales**

Gwen Cooper stepped out of Jack’s office as the alarms sounded.

“Incoming.” Luc was using a console on the main floor. “The redirect failed. The alien ship is trying to emerge over Cardiff.”

“Do you have a bomb?” Gwen walked down the stairs.

Luc looked at her. “What kind?”

“Something Anwen can throw at it without having to fully connect to the Rift.”

Anwen staggered into the main area followed by Ianto. “Already connected.”

“We need a bomb.”

Ianto paused to think. “Does it have to explode?”

Gwen looked at him. “What do you mean?”

“If it’s placed in an oxygen or gas environment, a spark will cause an explosion.”

Anwen chuckled. “The infirmary safety manual. Don’t smoke around the oxygen tanks.” She sunk to the ground. “You will have to thank John for the modified Roomba.”

Gwen hurried over to her daughter.

“Roomba away!”

Minutes passed. “Ship detonated inside the Rift,” Luc reported.

“The universe is pretty.”

“Let go,” Gwen said.

“I want a pony.” Anwen slumped against her mother. “John said you’d shoot him if he got me a pony.”

Gwen carefully lifted her daughter. “I bought you a stuffed Palomino for Christmas. You can have it early.”


	16. Chapter 16

**Torchwood London, 2049**

Below the view-port, Earth spun, its people unaware of the looming catastrophe they’d brought on themselves. Greedy and arrogant and stupid. Forty year-old Awen Williams watched from the safety of Torchwood Global space station. Torchwood had taken it against the odds. Humanity’s last line of defense against itself.

Other Keara entered her office. She looked exactly like her friend did years before she died. Except for the scars. Her friend’s had been numerous from various physical traumas. This Keara’s scars were on the inside.

“If I do this, my family, Jack, John, will live?”

“Yes.” Her voice was soft and sad.

“How does it work?”

“The device will transfer your essence into your wrist-strap. It's a lot more than a computer interface. When your younger self has the wrist-strap, she will be as connected to the Rift as you are.”

Anwen had her doubts. “I have trouble detonating a ship now. My ten year-old self would be able to?”

“Yes.”

“If you can do all of this, why can’t you fix it yourself?”

“I’m a psychic and a time traveler. I can provide insight and council. But I can’t save the world. Knowing that something will happen doesn’t mean I can prevent it by myself.”

“John will be safe?”

“Yes.”

“What do I have to do?”


End file.
